Illinois notebook: Illini has the swagger back

There's a different feeling around the locker room as Illinois prepared to meet No. 9 Purdue in the Big Ten Conference opener Tuesday in West Lafayette, Ind.

John Supinie

There's a different feeling around the locker room as Illinois prepared to meet No. 9 Purdue in the Big Ten Conference opener Tuesday in West Lafayette, Ind.

After staggering into conference play a year ago with bad chemistry and home losses to Miami (of Ohio) and Tennessee State, these Illini head into the 18-game Big Ten schedule with some confidence and a six-game winning streak that included a blowout win over then-No. 25 Missouri. The Illini only loss is a two-pointer to Clemson, an undefeated team ranked No. 20 this week.

While winning a Big Ten championship is everyone's preseason goal, teams must be realistic.

"You go into the season with that as one of your goals,'' Illinois coach Bruce Weber said. "Is it realistic or a far-fetched goal? At the beginning, it was a distant goal. As we've gotten better and improved and beaten people, we feel like we can be in that hunt.

"Even though the national media had a panic attack about Michigan State and Purdue losing to North Carolina and Duke on national TV, those two are the favorites. Then there's a group of six or seven teams that kind of feel like they have a chance to maybe not win the thing but be in that upper echelon. We're in that group.''

Reaching the NCAAs is enough of a handful for the Illini. By winning 12 of their first 13 games, they put themselves in the postseason picture. Now comes the rough part of carving out nine or 10 wins in the Big Ten. Illinois failed to play in the NCAAs last year for the first time since 1999.

The NCAA bids may go fast in March. Give the first two to Purdue and Michigan State. From there, the league has depth but plenty of unanswered questions. Ohio State lost by 28 points at home to West Virginia on Saturday. Wisconsin still doesn't have an impressive win. Michigan has victories over UCLA and Duke, but can a two-man scoring machine carry the Wolverines through the season?

Minnesota, Illinois, Penn State and Northwestern will likely reach postseason, but the league may only get five or six NCAA bids. With a No. 2 ranking in the RPI, Weber thought the league could get six or seven bids. Big Ten Network analyst Tim Doyle had five Big Ten teams in the NCAAs, he said Monday. Illinois wasn't one of them.

"They definitely have a shot to get nine or 10 conference wins,'' Doyle said. "Who says they're not an NCAA team? I have them out right now. I already have five in. They could easily be the sixth team in.''

For sake of argument, Doyle has Purdue, Michigan State, Ohio State, Michigan and Minnesota in right now. For Illinois, it's nice to be back in the argument rather than arguing with each other.

Meacham awarded

Illinois senior guard Trent Meacham's two-game run earned him co-player of the week in the Big Ten Conference with Michigan junior forward DeShawn Sims, the conference announced Monday morning.

Meacham averaged 19.5 points, 4.0 assists and 2.5 rebounds to lead Illinois to wins over No. 25 Missouri and Eastern Michigan. Meacham scored a season-high 23 points in the 75-69 victory over Missouri to lead the Illini to their first win against a ranked team. He tallied 15 points in the second half against the Tigers.

Meacham followed that with 16 points, including 4-for-5 shooting from the 3-point line, in the 62-53 win over Eastern Michigan on Sunday. Meacham's 12.2 points per game is tied with sophomore guard Demetri McCamey for the team lead.

"Trent has not only shot the ball well, which has been his strength, but he also has become a much better defender,'' Weber said. "He's getting to the basket. Against Missouri, he had nine free throws. I asked the seniors to be consistent. For the most part, they've done that. Trent's been one of our leaders.''

In other news

Illinois women's basketball, which lost nine of its last 10 games, hosts Wisconsin on Thursday and Minnesota on Saturday. The game against the Gophers is an 11 a.m. tipoff with coverage on CBS. Tickets are free. The Illini are 4-9 overall, 0-2 in the Big Ten.

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